As part of the blog tour for The Feathered Book, I am so excited to share a guest post from author, Charlie Nutbrown! My review is joined on to the end of this blog!
Check out Charlie’s blog and keep scrolling for my review!
MAPS AND THE FEATHERED BOOK
Growing up I believed that all books should begin with a map.In fact, I still do. To this day, opening a book and turning to an unfamiliar world fills me with excitement. For a map is a promise of exploration, a portal to a new realm, a match to light the imagination. It is the writer extending their hand, saying ‘Come with me; let’s share an adventure’.
As a child, I would spend hours gazing at maps. Huddled in a pool of lamplight, I’d study Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, following young Ged’s journey through the archipelago: mountainous Gont; the dry, unsettling KargadLands; dragon-infested Selidor. Lying on my bed, I would plot my own journeys through Earthsea, visiting islands not yet featured, but whose very names promised tales worth telling. What happens in the northern Hogen Lands? Who lives in lonely Jessage? Perhaps I could find out. For, with that map in my hands, I was Ged – a young wizard with a boat at my command, the wind in my sails, and a magical world to explore.
And, likewise, I was one of the Fellowship, braving the Mines of Moria. I was a Swallow, skimming across the water to Wild Cat Island. I was Snufkin, wandering Moominvalley. I chased gold on Treasure Island, explored the Druid Stones in the The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, ran with the rabbits across Watership Down.
So, when I wrote my middle grade novel, The Feathered Book, a map was central to my plans. A locked-room mystery, the story sees Monty the Fox and Nettle the Rabbit set out to solve a baffling crime: the theft of a cursed work of alchemy from a labyrinth beneath a library. Along the way, the pair meet otter pirates and sinister toads, badger detectives and crooked rats. They are plunged into a world of booby traps, mazes, and secret lairs.
The world is known as the Lake, an archipelago of small, wooded islands. During the years it took to write The Feathered Book, I drew and re-drew the map of the Lake. Once finished, I passed my map to the book’s incredible illustrator, Ewa Beniak-Haremska. She took my shoddy, ham-fisted drawing, and turned it into a thing of beauty: all oak leaves and waves, sun’s rays and sailing boats. Better than I had ever dreamed, it not only shows the world, but it captures the spirit of the book – traditional yet strange, cosy yet gothic.
Perhaps one day, a reader will huddle in their bed with a copy of The Feathered Book, tracing the adventures of Monty and Nettle with their finger. Perhaps they will daydream of little boats and mysterious islets. Perhaps they will mouth the names of the islands – Spoondrift, Spigglewick, Muzzleplash – and venture to as yet unexplored regions of the Lake. I hope so. For as the map promises:
‘Come with me; let’s share an adventure.’
I thoroughly enjoy a good mystery and find myself drawn to that genre more times than not. When The Feathered Book arrived, I read the blurb on the back and very quickly decided this would be my next read.
Monty the fox has had many hobbies and potential careers in his lifetime, never seeming to settle on anything for a long time. His best friend, Nettle the Rabbit, despairs of Monty and his ever-changing mind, but she sticks by him.
When Monty decides to be a detective, Nettle prepares for the worst and when an actual case lands in front of them, she is sure that he will lose interest. However, Monty becomes energised, inspired and determined to solve the case. The Feathered Book has been stolen from a locked room and it is a dangerous and cursed book. Believed to contain the magic to create gold, it has been locked away for years to protect everyone from the curse.
Monty and Nettle will face dangerous pirates, a labyrinth in a library and escaped prisoners! But can they solve the mystery and find the stolen book?
It’s a brilliant mystery and Monty is a fantastic character!
My Shelves Are Full 